Someone told me today that about 10 new mash-ups are hitting the web every day. It’s probably a lot more than that.
What’s a mashup, you say?
Wikipedia says it best … a mash up is “a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source”.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Someone comes up with an idea… Wouldn’t it be nice if I could view a Google map of say Vail, Colorado? While I am looking at that, I want to see all the photos of Vail that have been uploaded on Flickr. I also want to know about the best books on Amazon.com about Vail… and I want a special events calendar that will show me all the happenings there. I love this… it’s all about me! Oh did I say I want the weather too… and I’d like to socialize with other people who are interested in Vail too. Voila – just go to mapdango.com. It’s an amazing combination of a load of useful sites.
Here are a couple of my other favorites mash ups…
VibeAgent.com – Hotel search, user reviews, plus a Q&A section, and links to real-life people. You get trustworthy hotel recommendations written by people (or as they call them, agents) who share tastes and preferences.
Kayak.com – searches over 100 airline, hotel and vacation booking sites, often finds the best deals.
TripIt.com – Cool site that lets you gather your flight, hotel, car, dinner, etc reservations into one tidy itinerary and then share it with others.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Importance of Key Words in SEO Writing
Having a good website is not a guarantee that people will visit your website. One of the primary reasons why your website will not be noticed is because nobody can find it in the first place.
Note that there are about 80 million websites that people who go online to shop will not really find your site unless it is ranked among the top ten search results. In most cases, people who are reaching for something will not really go to the next page of the search result so there is a slim chance for you to be noticed if you do not make it to the first page of the search result.
Use Powerful Triggers
People who search for something online use keywords and key phrases to find what they want. In most cases, the keywords and key phrases used in the search are those words that are closely related to their field of interest. To drive traffic to your website, you should put SEO articles in your website using powerful triggers that could put your website on the top search results.
To be able to write good SEO articles, you should learn the language of your trade well. When writing your article, use keywords and key phrases that would most likely be used by people who are looking for products and services in your area of expertise. The placement of the keywords and the key phrases in your article is very important.
It is not enough that you put in the keywords and key phrases; you should also make sure that everything make sense so that the search engine will pick up your article and rank you higher than the others.
When placing keywords or key phrases in your article, use these words on the title of your article and then use the same keywords a few more times on the body of the article.
Source: SEO Copyrighting Blog
more>
Note that there are about 80 million websites that people who go online to shop will not really find your site unless it is ranked among the top ten search results. In most cases, people who are reaching for something will not really go to the next page of the search result so there is a slim chance for you to be noticed if you do not make it to the first page of the search result.
Use Powerful Triggers
People who search for something online use keywords and key phrases to find what they want. In most cases, the keywords and key phrases used in the search are those words that are closely related to their field of interest. To drive traffic to your website, you should put SEO articles in your website using powerful triggers that could put your website on the top search results.
To be able to write good SEO articles, you should learn the language of your trade well. When writing your article, use keywords and key phrases that would most likely be used by people who are looking for products and services in your area of expertise. The placement of the keywords and the key phrases in your article is very important.
It is not enough that you put in the keywords and key phrases; you should also make sure that everything make sense so that the search engine will pick up your article and rank you higher than the others.
When placing keywords or key phrases in your article, use these words on the title of your article and then use the same keywords a few more times on the body of the article.
Source: SEO Copyrighting Blog
more>
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Take Time To Plan
Small business owners may not have time to develop a strategic marketing plan. They are buried with day to day operations. It is well worth the time and energy to stop and get your vision and objectives on paper.
So whether it is your overall plan or a target plan that focuses on your web and social media marketing, develop the plan! Take the time to build a strong foundation with measurable goals, a timeline and detailed budget.
Here are a few guidelines in creating a plan.
By the way, some things work and some things don’t, but if you don’t write it down and manage the process, you will be shooting from the hip and using gut feelings instead of quantifiable results.
John Wanamaker once said that he knew half the money he spent on advertising worked! He just didn’t know which half.
Start with the basics…
What are your Business Objectives? Are you launching a new product? Is the goal to beat a competitor? Generate “x” amount of revenue?
What do you want to communicate? What do you want to compel people to do in order to achieve the business objective? Click on your website? Visit your business? Join your e-community?
Who are your target markets? Who are you talking to? Give that target a personality? Not just an age range. It always surprises me when I see a market defined as “Women 25-35”. Are they working moms, stay home moms, athletic, computer savvy, travelers, single, married… you get the picture.
What are your USP’s? Rosser Reeves coined the phrase Unique Selling Proposition. It’s what sets you apart. What makes you unique.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Build your house with a strong foundation and it will last!
Visit HUSKE.com for client testimonials and more information.
So whether it is your overall plan or a target plan that focuses on your web and social media marketing, develop the plan! Take the time to build a strong foundation with measurable goals, a timeline and detailed budget.
Here are a few guidelines in creating a plan.
By the way, some things work and some things don’t, but if you don’t write it down and manage the process, you will be shooting from the hip and using gut feelings instead of quantifiable results.
John Wanamaker once said that he knew half the money he spent on advertising worked! He just didn’t know which half.
Start with the basics…
What are your Business Objectives? Are you launching a new product? Is the goal to beat a competitor? Generate “x” amount of revenue?
What do you want to communicate? What do you want to compel people to do in order to achieve the business objective? Click on your website? Visit your business? Join your e-community?
Who are your target markets? Who are you talking to? Give that target a personality? Not just an age range. It always surprises me when I see a market defined as “Women 25-35”. Are they working moms, stay home moms, athletic, computer savvy, travelers, single, married… you get the picture.
What are your USP’s? Rosser Reeves coined the phrase Unique Selling Proposition. It’s what sets you apart. What makes you unique.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Build your house with a strong foundation and it will last!
Visit HUSKE.com for client testimonials and more information.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
What is rich media and how can I learn more about its accessibility?
The term rich media was coined to describe a broad range of digital interactive media. Rich media can be downloadable or may be embedded in a webpage. If downloadable, it can be viewed or used offline with media players such as Real Networks' RealPlayer, Microsoft Media Player, or Apple's QuickTime, among others.
The defining characteristic of rich media is that it exhibits dynamic motion. This motion may occur over time or in direct response to user interaction.
Two examples of dynamic motion that occur over time are a streaming video newscast and a stock "ticker" that continually updates itself. An example of dynamic motion in response to user interaction is a prerecorded webcast coupled with a synchronized slide show that allows user control. Another is an animated, interactive presentation file embedded in a web page.
Elements of rich media are increasingly used in education, in areas ranging from distance learning to web-based teaching and instructional tools.
Not surprisingly, rich media presents numerous accessibility challenges. However, rich media can be made accessible if all the elements are developed with accessibility in mind and the end product is used or viewed on accessible media players. Accessible rich media typically includes captioning, audio description, and navigation using a keyboard.
Accessible media players are those that can be operated by all users, including those using screen readers. They must also provide authors with the means to add captions, audio descriptions, extended audio descriptions, and subtitles. The current level of accessibility for media players creates interesting situations. Some media players allow video descriptions to be created and played but have an inaccessible interface that users of screen readers cannot operate. This results in the primary audience for audio descriptions not being able to select the PLAY button.
Another issue is that captions may look different when created on one player and then played back on another. For instance, captions developed using QuickTime may look fine when viewed in QuickTime but then appear larger or smaller when later viewed in RealPlayer.
While much still needs to be resolved, considerable improvements in accessibility have been made. A free captioning and description tool, MAGpie, is now available for adding captions and audio description to video and audio files.
Several media players have also made considerable progress in improving accessibility of their products. To learn more about accessible rich media, visit the National Center for Accessible Media Rich Media Accessibility web page. This web page includes a showcase of accessible rich media; tutorials on captioning audio, descriptive video, making maps and other forms of rich media accessible; strategies for dealing with player and cross-platform issues; links to tools for rich media authoring and viewing; links to latest news; and much more.
Source:University of Washington
The defining characteristic of rich media is that it exhibits dynamic motion. This motion may occur over time or in direct response to user interaction.
Two examples of dynamic motion that occur over time are a streaming video newscast and a stock "ticker" that continually updates itself. An example of dynamic motion in response to user interaction is a prerecorded webcast coupled with a synchronized slide show that allows user control. Another is an animated, interactive presentation file embedded in a web page.
Elements of rich media are increasingly used in education, in areas ranging from distance learning to web-based teaching and instructional tools.
Not surprisingly, rich media presents numerous accessibility challenges. However, rich media can be made accessible if all the elements are developed with accessibility in mind and the end product is used or viewed on accessible media players. Accessible rich media typically includes captioning, audio description, and navigation using a keyboard.
Accessible media players are those that can be operated by all users, including those using screen readers. They must also provide authors with the means to add captions, audio descriptions, extended audio descriptions, and subtitles. The current level of accessibility for media players creates interesting situations. Some media players allow video descriptions to be created and played but have an inaccessible interface that users of screen readers cannot operate. This results in the primary audience for audio descriptions not being able to select the PLAY button.
Another issue is that captions may look different when created on one player and then played back on another. For instance, captions developed using QuickTime may look fine when viewed in QuickTime but then appear larger or smaller when later viewed in RealPlayer.
While much still needs to be resolved, considerable improvements in accessibility have been made. A free captioning and description tool, MAGpie, is now available for adding captions and audio description to video and audio files.
Several media players have also made considerable progress in improving accessibility of their products. To learn more about accessible rich media, visit the National Center for Accessible Media Rich Media Accessibility web page. This web page includes a showcase of accessible rich media; tutorials on captioning audio, descriptive video, making maps and other forms of rich media accessible; strategies for dealing with player and cross-platform issues; links to tools for rich media authoring and viewing; links to latest news; and much more.
Source:University of Washington
Monday, July 7, 2008
Courage to Fail
Love this video on YouTube. Trying new things with your website may not work all the time, but don't give up!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Don’t Be The Weakest Link
by: Katherine Huske
Links into your website are an important component of your web strategies. In bound links are like votes that promote your site. Just like an election, the site with the most votes wins and comes to the top of the search engine results.
One best practice is to beef up your in-bound links.
Back- Links. You can check who is linking to you (a back-link) with several free tools available on the web: wholinks2me, AddMe, Yahoo! Site Explorer and MarketLeap. Back-links are like votes- they validate your site and help improve the site’s popularity.
Web Directories. Getting your website listed on web directories with back-links to your site is important. A web directory lists and categorizes links. Web directories include Yahoo! Directory and dmoz.
News Releases. Posting news releases on your site and elsewhere (like PR Web or PR Leap) is a great tool to increasing links to your site.
Submitting Articles. Writing and submitting articles to web directories like Buzzle, EzineArticles, GoArticles, Articles Factory and WebProNews is a great way to have your links dispersed on the web.
Social Media. Your profile on a social networking site such as LinkedIn or Facebook allows you to post a link to your website — and to invite visitors to visit.
Blogs. Starting a blog is so easy. Links from your blog to your website can boost traffic tremendously.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To find out more about improving your website contact Huske & Associates- Your Internet Marketing Advocate.
Links into your website are an important component of your web strategies. In bound links are like votes that promote your site. Just like an election, the site with the most votes wins and comes to the top of the search engine results.
One best practice is to beef up your in-bound links.
Back- Links. You can check who is linking to you (a back-link) with several free tools available on the web: wholinks2me, AddMe, Yahoo! Site Explorer and MarketLeap. Back-links are like votes- they validate your site and help improve the site’s popularity.
Web Directories. Getting your website listed on web directories with back-links to your site is important. A web directory lists and categorizes links. Web directories include Yahoo! Directory and dmoz.
News Releases. Posting news releases on your site and elsewhere (like PR Web or PR Leap) is a great tool to increasing links to your site.
Submitting Articles. Writing and submitting articles to web directories like Buzzle, EzineArticles, GoArticles, Articles Factory and WebProNews is a great way to have your links dispersed on the web.
Social Media. Your profile on a social networking site such as LinkedIn or Facebook allows you to post a link to your website — and to invite visitors to visit.
Blogs. Starting a blog is so easy. Links from your blog to your website can boost traffic tremendously.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To find out more about improving your website contact Huske & Associates- Your Internet Marketing Advocate.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Free Web Analytic Tools
Google Analytics - set up goals to measure conversion rates or use the Site Overlay tool to see a visual breakdown of visitor paths.
Woopra - new tool on the block and still in beta. Offers real time visitor analysis and built in chat tool, both of which are not present in Google Analytics.
Clicktale - more of a recording tool that allows you to record and playback what your site visitors do. Free version allows 100 recordings per week.
Crazyegg - allows you to see exactly where people click in the form of heatmaps and other visual indicators. A more advanced version of the Site Overlay tool in Google Analytics. Free version allows 4 pages to be tracked with 5,000 visitors per month.
Enquisite - Focuses on search traffic analysis and provides reports detailing both organic and paid search traffic. Includes in depth LongTail reports.
Woopra - new tool on the block and still in beta. Offers real time visitor analysis and built in chat tool, both of which are not present in Google Analytics.
Clicktale - more of a recording tool that allows you to record and playback what your site visitors do. Free version allows 100 recordings per week.
Crazyegg - allows you to see exactly where people click in the form of heatmaps and other visual indicators. A more advanced version of the Site Overlay tool in Google Analytics. Free version allows 4 pages to be tracked with 5,000 visitors per month.
Enquisite - Focuses on search traffic analysis and provides reports detailing both organic and paid search traffic. Includes in depth LongTail reports.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Top Ten On Line Marketing Tactics
Great link. It's a survey poll that shows the top ten tactics Web Marketers plan to use in 2008.
http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/02/top-ten-online-marketing-tactics/
For local Web Marketing in Aspen, Snowmass, Vail, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, Colorado visit www.huske.com - affordable tourism, medical and financial web marketing.
http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/02/top-ten-online-marketing-tactics/
For local Web Marketing in Aspen, Snowmass, Vail, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, Colorado visit www.huske.com - affordable tourism, medical and financial web marketing.
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